Map design and layout

DRAWING INSTRUMENTS 
The basic instruments consist of:
1. pens,
2. compasses,
3. dividers,
4. computer and 
5. printers. 
Pens
The most common pen used by a cartographer is a ‘crow-quill’ pen. It is a sharp 
pointed pen and is used for fine drawings. The use of a crow-quill pen requires a lot of 
training.
Ruling pen also known as lining pen happened to be used for drawing lines of various 
thicknesses. It has two blades which could be adjusted as per requirement of the thickness of 
line, with the help of a side screw. Thus the lines of different thicknesses can be made with 
the same pen. It requires frequent cleaning as the ink clogs in between the blades. Some 
ruling pens have their blades assembly fixed in a swivel. They are used in drawing curved 
lines such as contours. Pens with two sets of blades make the so-called road pens which are 
used in drawing parallel and swinging lines.
However, in ruling pens adjustment of blades for drawing lines of various thicknesses 
is done manually which is difficult to maintain at precise level. Therefore, the precise variant 
pens have been introduced. Among these pens the most commonly used ones are: 
(i) U.N.O. Pen 
(ii) Leroy Pen, 

---

 (iii) Stedlars Mars,
(iv) Ratring,
(v) Payzant Pens, 
(vi) Graphics, and
(vii) Keo-Aristo. 
A leroy pen comes with leroy lettering set. It can be bought also separately. It has a 
cylinder with a point and ink is fed through an opening in the cylinder. The cylinder is 
attached to a holder. Leroy pens are numbered-from 0000 to 8. Each number gives a constant 
width of line or dot, and variation pressure does not affect the thickness of line. It is 
especially useful for those who do not have steady hand while drawing,
The Barch-Payzant pen is also designed for lettering. It is useful in drawing uniform 
lines and dots. The speed ball pens have different shapes of nibs to give different kinds of 
lines. These are inexpensive and easy to operate; the graphos are like fountain pens.